Conansson

When I awoke the next morning it was in a bed surrounded by open books Lana had Mr. Harlow acquire for me about different magics and even religion. I had not really tried to learn anything specific to gain any skills, but I had gained three points in Intelligence and quite a few insights. Just understanding the properties of raw mana integration and the imbuing of mana with affinities like healing life energy or the natural elements unlocked the actual enchantment skill.

Now that it was just after sunrise, though, it was time for me to start the day with my familiars who were all sleeping on or in front of the foot of my bed. As usual, Cweeper followed me out of the room while riding Duck but now Duck was trying to compete with Hermes for walking in the lead. Even though Duck had quite the hop, Hermes was just naturally faster while on the ground.

Despite all of this, though, Cweeper still retained the honor of being the mounted familiar even while wearing their child in a sling across her chest. I could not help but question whether or not riding a giant owl was good for the baby, but this was a video game and it was not my child. If Cweeper wanted to raise an owl riding warrior priestess, that was her business.

Most of the others were already awake and in the dining room receiving their briefings from Lady Mara about the purpose and goals of our trip. For them this was generally a training mission to study the different kinds of wildlife we would come across in stronger regions as well as creative means of using them.

There was a 'chance' at finding some old ruins from a war from a few hundred years ago but the entire Winter Wood had been combed over numerous times so it was essentially just a myth. Little did my team know that my Regional Map has a large circle off to the side and above the middle of Winter Wood which was the target area of just those ruins.

Just as well, little did Lady Mara know that inside the circle her information created on my map was a broken hear icon in the bottom third of that circle. Melpomene had taken the liberty of giving me a more exact location to search. It DID kind of take the fun out of the adventure aspect, but I also wanted to come back to Sierra as soon as possible.

Depending on how long we were gone, the Delai estate would probably be owned and operating by the time we returned. Canley and his family could be brought in, we could probably operate a player-specific store through the estate, and we would have our own workshop and training facilities. Best of all, my team could finally start a clan and start recruiting using the Delai estate as a base until we actually needed out own facilities.

Using the Delai family to support the clan while using the clan to support the Delai family, it would not be long before we had a proper noble family with a small private army. There would of course be restrictions of sorts on these activities, at first, but they could be dealt with.

Just having a second recognized form of chivalry and nobility, me with a knighthood, would solve a few future problems.

After breakfast came the time that we were all waiting for. The people who delivered the wagons last night had already loaded them with everything Lady Mara bought and Mr. Harlow had already hitched the giant raptors called land dragons. Three wagons with four beds apiece were waiting lined up on the road outside the estate's gates.

Lana actually started getting emotional while wishing everyone the best on their trip and slowly working their way down to me. "You better come back with both hands," was my farewell before Lana shamelessly threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. I just smiled and rubbed her head while the others gave me funny looks.

I never did tell them about the bat-like skin across the chest of Hermes' Raiment. I did not really plan to, either, since it would not be of any use to them. Even if they tried to replicate the Raiment theirs would not even have half the defense as Hermes'.

Once everybody was piled up in the three wagons loaded with food and water and various supplies the giant raptors started off through the wide residential streets. The upper class streets were used to seeing small parades of party-goers and caravans from their businesses. It would be in the middle and lower residential areas that we could not take full-sized wagons.

I rode on the front bench of the lead wagon wearing nothing but the undecided white tuxedo and tie I wore for my position. With a player icon and purple title hanging over my head, there were many players on the main streets who looked enviously at not only me but everybody in the wagons. It made all of my efforts up til now feel as though they had been worth it.

Not far from the south gate where most players frequented for business and parties, though, I brought the wagons to a stop when a familiar bearded face comes into view. "Yo, old man!" I call out to the barbarian in layers of ferecat furs who was wearing both a fuller sword and a large ax across his back.

When he turned and saw who had called out, I stopped the lead wagon which made the land dragons behind stop in turn. "You get any good imp goods?" I ask curiously, certain that the player was only now returning from a night of grinding. "Better question, what's your level?"

Looking at me a little suspiciously while also looking around at the other wagons, the old man says, "I was twenty when I came up from Weyerhauser, last night I finally hit twenty-three. An, yes, I found an entire nest last night."

Nodding with a satisfied smile, knowing there was a reason why I liked the looks of this old man at my stall the other morning, I say, "Good to hear. You got any prior engagements or parties?"

Now looking even more suspicious and even guarded, the man says, "For now I am just free hunting and taking night quests to raise my Guild ranking while getting ready for a clan. Why do you want to know?"

"Because I want to see how you dance, old man," I shamelessly reply while gesturing for Hermes sitting on the driver's bench beside me to scoot over closer and make room. "We're going on a leveling expedition, we're got smithing equipment and everything we need for while we're out. Let me take you for a test drive and see if you're interested in our clan."

Frowning in deep thought while slowly stroking their beard as if this was a newly developed habit, the old man takes a while before finally saying, "If you don't mind a half-dwarf berserker, I'll join."

Berserker? That was an intermediate warrior class that was heavy offensive and high HP to act like a wild tanker. This player had already advanced or unlocked their next class and they were a lower level than me!

"Did you just threaten us with your advertisement? Get the frick up here, already," I say with a laugh, knowing that Go, Ivana, and Merch in the back of my wagon were currently paying close attention to the conversation. All of them were still in their starting classes. I had unlocked the abilities of a few other classes but that was the most for my team.

Just as I was snapping the leads to the land dragons to set the wagons going again, Papi appeared at the back of our wagon and climbed in while asking, "What was the hold up, Hack? We just about clogged the entire south gate just now!"

Go answers in my stead while I steer the land dragons onto the roadway circling the outside of the city with a simple shrug, saying, "He found a berserker."

"There's already a berserker in Sierra?" Papi asks curiously, meeting the cool gaze of the old man looking back into the wagon. "Not bad. I have a berserk branch option I was going to explore but it doesn't open until level thirty. Paladins don't have many advancements, though."

"Should have advanced into a paladin, that's my plan," the barbarian replies in a gruff voice before turning back around to face forward. Then, to me, he says, "The name's Conansson, like the barbarian but I'm a viking. Nice to meet you."

"Life Hack, but you can call me Hack," I say in kind. "The folks in back are IvanaWin, Go-Croak, Merc Merch, and PapiChurro. Papi has a daughter named LilChurro, remember that's his daughter and she is our youngest member."

"I'm eight," he says suddenly, giving me the most perfect poker face I had ever seen. Then he opened his game menus and started switching through pages and options by hand for a few moments before talking with a voice that was impossible to tell if it was really male or female because it had clearly never even heard of puberty yet. "I'm eight, the game offers the really young players voice changers and stuff so people won't know our ages."

Then he switched back after I looked to Papi for verification. "Unless he's hacking to allow the transmission of a voice mod to overlay or just hacked one into the game, the only way to get a voice mod is to be under sixteen," Papi verifies with slightly narrowed eyes in Conansson's direction. "If you ever even look at my daughter the wrong way without letting me talk to your parents, I'll bully you right back to level one and then out of this game."

"Send me a phone number, I have to log out in another game hour or so anyway," Conansson's gruff and rugged voice challenges fearlessly.

"Before you two start flirting in private let's just accept my friend request and party invite first," I cut in quickly, just in case Conansson really was some eight-year-old kid.

Once Conansson was finally in the party the rest of the team got to say hello and ask questions and generally meet the prospective new member. Through this we learned that the newly nicknamed Conan had started out as a normal warrior with plus-ten to his physical stats and plus-ten-percent to melee weapons effectiveness.

However, after creating his own dual-wielding skill as well as developing a pain tolerance skill, he unlocked the berserk class early while trying to solo run the tree vermin dungeon by Weyerhauser in the south. He failed to clear the dungeon and used up his only hard mode entry for that day but his rewards were greater than what the dungeon offered.

Because he was kind enough to tell us some of the secret behind his early class advancement, which came with an increase in weapons and armor usage as a 'self-made' berserker, I showed off my Classless Beast Master title and told him the story. Since he was not a classless player and the others had already tried similar methods to only acquire a Beast Taming skill, I had no problems telling him the proper secret. We, of course, agreed not to share any information publicly.

As it slowly turned out, this little kid was actually a tech whiz who was playing the game to try and crack the various codes to make himself famous for his 'resume'. This made the others both excited and wary at the same time. Not only did they already have somebody taking all the early easter eggs by chance, now we had somebody doing it ON PURPOSE.

The others quickly came together and spent their time scouring the Social and outside forums through it for any publicized achievements similar to ours. In this way, not only could they get an idea for what achievements to attempt for their own classes but also claimed what achievements the rest of us could not target. Specifically, me.

I did not mind in the least, their zealotry in claiming naming rights for themselves just did all the work for writing up my list of goals. Everything they did not claim would pretty much become Conansson's and mine to fight over. Conansson said his main interests in magic were for healing, defending, and enhancing himself so everything else in those regards left by the others were all mine.

This really did not leave anything for me besides the Elementalism and Beast Mastery that I had already claimed. However, Lil's only concern in familiars was being one of the first to capture a true flying mount or proper dragon and at the very least before me. Little did she know, I had already talked to Lyr and confirmed that nightwings could evolve.

Birds and reptiles had a shared ancestry, so grooming Duck into a magic familiar through advanced and expensive means while introducing dragon lineage would creature and evolved creature. It would not make something on the level of a Venomous Wyvern or true dragon, but the hybrid would be in its own little league if done properly. Sadly, I had to wait.

After a while, though, conversations started dying and everyone got bored so I finally brought up the Fast Travel option and sent out votes. If I was alone or with NPC then I could do it alone but with a party I required everybody's approval. Conansson, though, chose then to log out which ended up taking Papi with him before we could finally Fast Travel.

Fast Travel ended seconds later with the sun only half of the way up to noon because of Papi's return. After checking the map to see that the tireless land dragons had carried us about a dozen miles northeast of Sierra, I checked around with the others before once again voting. This time, though, we did not come out of Fast Travel until nearly evening.

The land dragons had stopped us along the riverbank of the northern Canfor Fork and were watering themselves a quarter of a mile out from the road still hitched to the wagons. I realized then that Fast Travel did not account for tending the animals and I was probably messing up[ royally in my job right now.

Returning closer to the road, I steer the lead land dragons parallel to the road for a half mile, before lightly pulling them to a stop just a hundred yards out from where the road bridges this fork of the region's river. Here we all got out to stretch our legs and unhitch the dragons to feed them about ten pounds of dried meat apiece and hobble them all together by their harnesses.

Checking the maps once again to find our current position just a few miles inside the outer edge of the forest, I do some rough estimates on how far we would be able to travel in the next day with a proper midday break and so on. Canfor Forest and Winter Wood were about a hundred miles mostly level plains sparsely populated with a handful of small towns and large villages. On level ground and straight roads, we could easily get between twenty and thirty miles in a day just walking the dragons.

"Two three-man teams, I am lead one and Go is lead two," I inform the others loudly while they were still setting up camp. "The rest stay behind and watch camp. Lil, Papi, you're with me."

"Agnes and…" Go says slowly, looking between Merch and Skooma. Both of them were good choices for people to handle aggro or deal damage so Go could fill the other role but one of them was his previous friend and the other was Agnes' brother.

"Change of plans," I decide to cover the awkwardness and do myself a favor. "Merch, you're following Papi and Lil. Skooma, you're with Go. I have a healing skill, a healing familiar, and two assassins. I'm the tank for my own party. Tell Conan that he's got night watch because his character came back rested."